14 Works, Today, May 27th. is Giovanni Antonio Guardi's day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #145

Francesco Guardi, Antonio Guardi

Carlo and Ubaldo Resisting the Enchantments of Armida's Nymphs, c. 1750/1755

Oil on canvas

250.2 x 459.8 cm (98 1/2 x 181 in.)

National Gallery of Art 

This painting illustrates a scene from Torquato Tasso's canto XIX of Jerusalem Delivered. See more below 

Giovanni Antonio Guardi (1699 – 23 January 1760), also known as Gianantonio Guardi, was an Italian painter and nobleman. Guardi was one of the founders of the Venetian Academy in 1756.

Gian Antonio Guardi

Portrait of a young architect

Oil on canvas

61 x 52 cm 

Private collection

He was born in Vienna into a family of nobility from Trentino. His father Domenico (born in 1678) was a Baroque painter. Gianantonio and his brothers Niccolò and Francesco (also painters), later inherited the family workshop after their father's death in 1716. They probably all contributed as a team to some of the larger commissions later attributed to his brother Francesco Guardi. His sister Maria Cecilia married the pre-eminent Veneto-European painter of his epoch, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

Giovanni Antonio Guardi, VIENNA 1699 - 1760 VENICE

Danae

Oil on canvas

38 3/8  by 23 3/8  in.; 97.5 by 59.4 cm.

Private collection

Disappointed by his lack of male heirs, King Acrisius asked the oracle of Delphi if this would change. The oracle announced to him that he would never have a son, but his daughter would, and that he would be killed by his daughter's son. At the time, Danae was childless and, meaning to keep her so, she was imprisoned in a tall brass tower with a single richly adorned chamber, but with no doors or windows, just a sky-light as the source of light and air). However, Zeus, the king of the gods, desired her, and came to her in the form of golden rain which streamed in through the roof of the subterranean chamber and down into her womb. Soon after, their child Perseus was born.

Unwilling to provoke the wrath of the gods or the Furies by killing his offspring and grandchild, King Acrisius cast Danaë and Perseus into the sea in a wooden chest. The sea was calmed by Poseidon and, at the request of Zeus, the pair survived. They were washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where they were taken in by Dictys – the brother of King Polydectes – who raised Perseus to manhood. The King was charmed by Danaë, but she had no interest in him. Consequently, he agreed not to marry her only if her son would bring him the head of the Gorgon Medusa. Using Athena's shield, Hermes's winged sandals and Hades' helmet of invisibility, Perseus was able to evade Medusa's gaze and decapitate her.

Later, after Perseus brought back Medusa's head and rescued Andromeda, the oracle's prophecy came true. He started for Argos, but learning of the prophecy, instead went to Larissa, where athletic games were being held. By chance, an aging Acrisius was there and Perseus accidentally struck him on the head with his javelin (or discus), fulfilling the prophecy. More on Danaë

This representation of the face of Danaë in the present composition is similar to how Guardi depicts the face of the young lady in Pharaoh's Daughter, after Palma il Giovane, now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (See below).

Giovanni Antonio Guardi  (1699–1760)

Pharoah's Daughter, after Palma il Giovane

Oil on canvas

H 58.8 x W 47 cm

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

The Pharaoh's daughter in the story of the finding of Moses in the biblical Book of Exodus is an important, albeit minor, figure in Abrahamic religions. Though some variations of her story exist, the general consensus among Jews, Christians, and Muslims is that she is the adoptive mother of the prophet Moses. Muslims identify her with Asiya, the Great Royal Wife of the pharaoh. In either version, she saved Moses from certain death from both the Nile river and from the Pharaoh. As she ensured the well-being of Moses throughout his early life, she played an essential role in lifting the Hebrew slaves out of bondage in Egypt, their journey to the Promised Land, and the establishment of the Ten Commandments. More on Pharaoh's daughter

He may have received his artistic training in Vienna, where he is first recorded in 1719, but had established a workshop in Venice by 1730. Among his first important clients was the connoisseur and collector Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, for whom Guardi created numerous paintings with an Orientalist theme.

Giovanni Antonio Guardi (1699-1760)

A Sultan receiving Tribute; and Turks at Prayer in a Mosque

Oil on canvas

18 x 24¾in. (45.8 x 62.8cm.)

Private collection

Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661-1747) (See below), for whom the present pictures were painted, ranks with Consul Smith as one of the most remarkable patrons and collectors in Venice in the 18th Century. Between 1724 and his death in 1747 he amassed over 900 pictures, including works by almost all of the leading Venetian painters of his day, an achievement made all the more exceptional by the fact that he did not start collecting until the age of sixty-three.

Antonio Guardi seems to have enjoyed a closer relationship with Schulenburg than any other artist, as, in addition to the individual payments he received for specific commissions, the painter - uniquely - was paid a monthly retainer by the marshal. More on this painting

Giovanni Antonio Guardi (1699-1760)

Portrait of Marshal Matthias von der Schulenburg

c. 1740

Oil on canvas

Museo del Settecento Veneziano, Ca' Rezzonico, Venice

Marshal Johann Matthias Reichsgraf von der Schulenburg (8 August 1661 – 14 March 1747) was a German aristocrat and general of Brandenburg-Prussian background who served in the Saxon and Venetian armies in the early 18th century and found a second career in retirement in Venice, as a grand collector and patron. More on Marshal Johann Matthias Reichsgraf

Giovanni Antonio Guardi  (1699–1760)

Dergoumidas, Armenian catholic priest,  before the Grand Vizier, c. between 1742 and 1743

Oil on canvas

Height: 46 cm (18.1 in); Width: 64 cm (25.1 in)

Private collection

This painting is part of a set of forty-three representing Turkish subjects painted in 1742-43 for Field Marshal Count Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg. The scene shows the Armenian priest Dergoumidas condemned to death by the Grand Vizier Ali Pascia for having converted to Catholicism; an episode which actually took place on 5 November 1707. More on this painting

He produced copies after the work of other artists, as well as a series of originals with Turkish-inspired interiors as easel pictures for private decorations. Antonio Guardi trained his younger brothers Nicolò and Francesco in his workshop, the latter working closely with him as a figure painter before establishing himself as a vedutista in the late 1750s.

Giovanni Antonio Guardi  (1699–1760)

Herminia and Vaprino Find the Wounded Tancred, c. 1750-55

Oil on canvas

250 x 261 cm

Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

This painting illustrates a scene from Torquato Tasso's canto XIX of Jerusalem Delivered. 

Torquato Tasso (Italian; 11 March 1544 – 25 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered, 1581), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the Siege of Jerusalem. He suffered from mental illness and died a few days before he was due to be crowned as the king of poets by the Pope. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Tasso remained one of the most widely read poets in Europe. More on Torquato Tasso

A founder member of the Accademia Veneziana in 1756, the elder Guardi produced several works for churches in Venice, notably in the Church of the Angelo San Raffaele, as well as decorative cycles for palaces and villas in the city and the surrounding countryside. Francesco Casanova was among his pupils.

Giovanni Antonio Guardi  (1699–1760)

Rest on the Flight into Egypt, c. 1750s

Oil on canvas

128 x 80 cm

Private collection

The scene is based not on any incident in the Bible itself, but on a body of tales or legends that had grown up in the early Middle Ages around the Bible story of the Holy Family fleeing into Egypt for refuge on being warned that Herod the Great was seeking to kill the Christ Child. According to the legend, Joseph and Mary paused on the flight in a grove of trees; the Holy Child ordered the trees to bend down so that Joseph could take fruit from them, and then ordered a spring of water to gush forth from the roots so that his parents could quench their thirst. This basic story acquired many extra details during the centuries. More on Rest on the Flight into Egypt

Giovanni Antonio Guardi  (1699–1760)

Moses and the burning bush

Oil on canvas

Height: 100 cm (39.3 in); Width: 127 cm (50 in)

Private collection

The burning bush is an object described by Exodus 3:1–4:17 as being located on Mount Horeb. According to the narrative, the bush was on fire, but was not consumed by the flames, hence the name. In the biblical narrative, the burning bush is the location at which Moses was appointed by Yahweh to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into Canaan. More on the burning bush

Giovanni Antonio Guardi  (1699–1760)

The Angel Appears to Tobias, c. 1750

Oil on canvas

Chiesa dell'Angelo Raffaele, Venice

The story of Tobias is recounted in the Book of Tobit. Tobias was sent by his father Tobit to Media to recover a sum of money he had hidden there earlier. Archangel Raphael, sent by God to help Tobit and his family, asked Tobit (who did not recognize the angel) whether he may escort his son on his journey and, in company with Tobias' faithful hound, they departed together. They reached the Tigris, where Tobias was attacked by a gigantic fish. The archangel ordered him to capture it and had him remove and conserve its gall, heart and liver. The innards proved to be a medicine which he can use to restore his father's sight.

The hovering angel is derived from a painting by Sebastiano Ricci in San Stae, Venice. Gianantonio Guardi often borrowed poses or motifs from other painters, recasting them in his own vivid manner. More on The Angel Appears to Tobias

Giovanni Antonio Guardi  (1699–1760)

The Departure of Tobias, c. 1750

Oil on canvas

Chiesa dell'Angelo Raffaele, Venice

Giovanni Antonio Guardi  (1699–1760)

The Healing of Tobias's Father, c. 1750

Oil on canvas

Chiesa dell'Angelo Raffaele, Venice

Giovanni Antonio Guardi  (1699–1760)

The Marriage of Tobias, c. 1750

Oil on canvas

Chiesa dell'Angelo Raffaele, Venice

To the middle years of the eighteenth century belongs one of the most remarkable examples of decorative painting in Venice. The ancient church of the Angelo Raffaele (perhaps founded as early as the seventh century) is now rather out of the way and looks dull in its unfinished form, which dates from the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Inside, above the doorway, is a great Baroque organ loft, its parapet decorated with a cycle of seven brilliantly painted scenes. The scenes are episodes from the story of Tobias, who is guided by Archangel Raphael to catch a miraculous fish that will heal his father's blindness. The painting is by Gianantonio Guardi, one of the important artists 'rediscovered' by the twentieth century. Long almost forgotten, the painter here emerges as one of the most imaginative artists of the eighteenth century. Gianantonio trained his younger brother Francesco Guardi, who collaborated on these decorations.

The picture shows the principal scene that occupies the parapet of the organ loft. The centre of the painting is empty, except for a distant landscape. Tobias and his wife, Sarah, are represented on the right in prayer before their nuptial bed. More on this painting

He died in Venice in 1760. More on Giovanni Antonio Guardi

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